Graduate students fulfill a variety of roles; as student, teacher, colleague, friend, and mentor. Each of these roles requires a certain amount of 'cultural' adroitness ' as each role comes with its own sensibility and set of expectations. For international students, these already challenging demands are further complicated by their need to navigate an additional layer of 'culture'- both socially and professionally. In this panel discussion, international students from a variety of disciplines and at different stages in their academic careers, reflect on their experiences here at UIUC; the challenges they've overcome, what they've learned, what they wish they'd known before and what advice they would give to incoming international graduate students.